IELTS Practice Tests Plus 2


Morgan Terry - 2005
    This title provides essential practice in all four modules of the IELTS examination: Listening, Reading, Writing and Speaking.

The Forest


Aleksandr Ostrovsky - 1859
    It was premiered in Saint Petersburg’s Alexandrinsky Theatre on November 1, 1871, as a benefice for actor Fyodor Burdin.

Journey


Robert K. Massie - 1975
    Journey is Robert and Suzanne Massie's memoir of raising their hemophiliac son in the 1950's, and the significant differences they found between the American and French healthcare systems.

Chechnya: To the Heart of a Conflict


Andrew Meier - 2004
    As Andrew Meier explains in this utterly compelling account, the most recent Chechen war actually broke out on New Year's Eve in 1994 when Boris Yeltsin sent hundreds of tanks to the center of the city of Grozny in an effort to quell popular demands for independence from Russia. Six years later, Meier, braving great personal danger, traveled to the scene of one of the largest civilian massacres carried out by Russian troops, reporting on the carnage in which over 60 Chechen civiliansincluding a pregnant woman and many elderlywere brutally slaughtered in one of the war's most horrific "mop-up" operations. Days after a Chechen woman became the conflict's first female suicide bomber, Meier visited this war-torn province, encountering, among others, kidnappers, Wahhabi Islamists aligned with the Taliban, and a stream of Russian mothers arriving at the morgue to identify their fallen soldier sons. Chechnya is Meier's stunning report from a region where the death toll has already exceeded 100,000 people, and a book that attempts to comprehend what compels men to shoot children in the back.

The Ship of Widows


I. Grekova - 1981
    The narrative traces the ebb and flow of their relationships and the changes wrought in their lives by the birth of a son to one of the women. Grekova conveys vividly not only the decisive differences between the postwar generation and those who participated in the defense of their country, but also the extraordinary capacity of human nature to endure and overcome seemingly unendurable suffering and deprivation. Above all, this text spotlights female experiences of the war: the fate of those who did not engage in battle at the front, but fought just as desperately to survive starvation, cold, and exhaustion, to maintain homes and, in a sense, a country to which soldiers could return. Ship of Widows provides a cultural key to an understudied period of Russia's history and an understudied segment of its population - women. This new paperback edition includes an illuminating foreword by Helena Goscilo.

The Passion of Marie Romanov


Laura Rose - 2014
    Midnight, in bed with her sister, Anastasia (Shvybz), in the Ipatiev Mansion in Ekaterinburg, during the last night of their lives. So much of my story unfolds by moonlight. This is a tale of midnight wakings and forced marches before dawn. Since this nightmare began, I do not dare undress, even to go to bed. I wear my dressing gown, my hair is prepared, and my shoes are set beside me. I have no idea when we will be summoned to rise. We have moved, as in the worst of dreams, slowly toward this place. There is no logic other than the sleepwalker’s obedience—to follow instruction which we cannot resist: an actual lunacy. Now, I have control only of this—my record of what happened to us, to me. I have committed a single sin, my one terrible transgression. I pray to be absolved. In this recording of memory lies all meaning to my life. Let my will prevail in this, my ultimate wish, to salvage something of value from this tragedy. The rest, as my mother says, is in God’s hands. When I look back, as I must in the short time allotted to me now, I can see the exact moment when our lives changed: at last light, on the thirteenth of March, 1917." Here, in startling new historical detail, based on original diaries and letters, is the Romanov tragedy told from the point of view of the Tsar's third daughter, Marie, Anastasia's closest, older sister. Marie's story is unique-only Marie crossed the frozen Siberian river with her parents, and only Marie shared the full 78 days and nights in 'The House of Special Purpose.' About the Author: Laura Rose is a popular playwright in Russia and is of Russian descent. She has extensively researched the history and explored the Alexander Palace and the site of the Ipatiev mansion.

Voices from Stalingrad: Unique First-Hand Accounts from World War II's Cruellest Battle. Jonathan Bastable


Jonathan Bastable - 2006
    Offering a record of one of the pivotal events of World War II, as told through the personal accounts of the German and Soviet soldiers who fought in it, this book features photographs from the Battle of Stalingrad, from both sides of the front.

Control the Crazy: My Plan to Stop Stressing, Avoid Drama, and Maintain Inner Cool


Vinny Guadagnino - 2012
    While he’s best known as the voice of reason and the most level-headed cast member on MTV’s Jersey Shore, what most people don’t know about Vinny Guadagnino is that he suffers from general anxiety disorder, a mental condition he shares with more than 40 million adults in the United States alone, and one he’s battled for most of his young adult life. As Vinny describes it, his anxious mind can make him feel scared, sad, isolated and alone, overwhelmed, and, at times, like he’s going crazy.How could Vinny struggle so much with anxiety and stress yet live in one of the wildest party houses in history? He learned to take charge of his problems. Drawing on his own experience and borrowing from some of the most popular and influential spiritual teachers in the field of personal growth, including Wayne W. Dyer, Eckhart Tolle, and Deepak Chopra, Vinny developed a step-by-step program that has helped him get a handle on his anxious mind. Beyond that, his program gave him a sense of personal power and control that has rocked every area of his life. In Control the Crazy, Vinny shares the triple-threat mind-body-spirit program that he uses every day to help keep him centered on and off the set. You can immediately put his uniquely fresh and straightforward “kick-ass” mental, physical, and spiritual tools to work in your own life. Vinny knows that everyone’s got “something” that gets them down or holds them back. Whatever that something is for you—Vinny’s plan can help you work through it.Vinny arms you with the tools to: - Deal with life’s little annoyances without losing it- Manage haters, bullies, and negative people in your life- Feel confident so you kill it at work or in school - Improve your game with the opposite sex Whether it’s work pressure, family conflict, relationship drama, academic trouble, or poor body image that’s making you crazy, the ten key techniques in this book will help you manage and control it. By sharing the details of his personal story and providing readers with the program that saved his sanity, his job, and, at times, his life, Vinny has written a book that can help anyone who suffers, as he does, to take charge of their own destiny.

The Officer's Daughter


Zina Rohan - 2007
    It is suitable for anyone who has ever missed a tube-stop while reading "Cold Mountain" or Captain Corelli's "Manddin"; those wanting something to tide them over until the next Sebastian Faulks; lastminute.com-ers in search of a book that will have them secretly hoping for a delayed flight...Sixteen-year-old Marta has always longed to follow her father and lead armies into battle. Instead, she finds herself leading her fellow girl-guides on a camping trip on the border between Poland and Germany on the very day in September 1939 that the Nazis invade. Immediately the girls are spirited across their Polish motherland to take refuge in a remote nunnery, but their safety is soon under threat...So begins a perilous adventure across thousands of miles - from the logging camps of frozen Siberia to the British field hospitals of Persia - during which Marta is forced to draw on reserves of courage she didn't think she had and make choices she never imagined she'd face, as her heart is torn between a fiery young Polish patriot and a charismatic Iranian doctor.